Saturday, April 11, 2009

Road Buffoonery, Self-Confident Patties, and a Berry-Eating Contest!

Greetings from... *checking city on hotel receipt*... Milwaukee! It's hard to keep track of where we are sometimes! If you're a clumsy buffoon like me, it's also hard to always remember where the furniture is in every hotel room on your way to the bathroom at night in the dark. Ouch. All kinds of slapstick goes on when you're a natural-born-buffoon in a non-familiar hotel room. No, really. Picture this classic moment from last week:

The lights are already out. Mr. Wing-it sleeps peacefully next to me. I'm trying to catch up on my blog reading until my eyes burn. My eyes burn, so I decide to go to sleep. Ever so gently and quiet as a mouse, I move the laptop from my lap to the ridiculously minuscule night table. The laptop pushes the alarm clock/radio OFF said ridiculously minuscule night table, and the alarm clock/radio lands on the floor in a small gap between the night table and the wall. The radio turns itself on and starts blasting a Lady Gaga song from down there. I, a weird germaphobe who wears slippers in hotel rooms because I don't even want my socks to make contact with the floor, reach behind the night table in the dark trying to find the stupid radio, frantically feeling my way around the floor with my bare hand. Mr. Wing-it wakes up in a serious state of grogginess and confusion: "What's going on?". I promptly emerge from my expedition to explain the situation and I WHACK my head on the wall-mounted lamp above the table while Lady Gaga keeps blasting in the background. There was nothing left to do but laugh!

Anyway, besides the clumsiness and stoogery, I've been cooking some yummy hotel-room dishes. Let's start with the sweets! (shocking!)

That was one well lit hotel room wasn't it? That was nice for a change!

These are my Saucepan Peanut Swirl Brownies that I made in Madison, Wisconsin. Our hotel room had a stove top and I had a saucepan, so that worked out. Recipe coming in a couple of weeks along with some other saucepan/frying pan "baked" goods.

Next up are some yummy rice patties topped with white bean sauce and mushrooms. I love these rice patties because they know exactly who they are: rice with veggies shaped into patties. They don't go about life pretending to be a faux meat, flaunting their vital wheat gluten and calling themselves something they're not. That's self esteem. Must be nice!

This a formula more than it is a recipe. It's a great way to use up leftover rice and turn it into something different. Just sauté whatever veggies you have in the refrigerator, or add some chunky salsa instead if you don't feel like chopping and sautéing. Throw in whatever you have that needs to be used up before it starts growing fur. Know what I mean?

1- Whisk together the vegetable broth, tomato sauce, salt, parsley, and your other herbs and/or spices.
2- In a medium bowl smash the rice with a potato masher. Don't turn it into mush, just smash it a little bit to get it pasty and sticky (sounds very appetizing right now, doesn't it)
3-Stir the broth mix and the sautéed veggies or salsa or whatever goodies you want into the cooked brown rice.
4- Stir in the breadcrumbs and oats. If the rice mix is too soggy add more breadcrumbs or ground oats, if it's too dry add more broth. It shouldn't be too dry or it will be all crumbly and hard to eat. I can tell you this after making a dry batch and having to chase pieces of patty with a fork around the plate.
5- Preheat a frying pan with the olive oil over medium heat.
6- Take chunks of the rice mix and shape them into patties. I make 5 medium sized patties, but you can make a lot of little ones as well.
7- Cook the patties until the bottoms are nice and golden brown, flip and cook for a couple more minutes or until the bottoms are golden brown.

Enjoy with roasted veggies or a veggie stir-fry!

* You will need to adjust the amounts of liquids and dry binder depending on what you're using. I've used oat milk instead of broth and they were fine, maybe not as tasty. I've made these with 1/2 cup of breadcrumbs, 1/4 cup of ground oats, and 1/4 cup of ground sunflower seeds and they were great. Chunky salsa instead of the tomato sauce along with some thawed frozen corn kernels works great. Also some smashed chickpeas thrown in there are awesome! Oh, and leave out the breadcrumbs and use a combination of oats and ground seeds or nuts to make them gluten free. So, just wing it! :-)

The Quick White Bean Sauce of awesomeness comes from lovely Diann. If you don't know who Diann is, then remove yourself from under that rock and check out her amazing blog! You'd be missing out on some delicious AND nutritious goodness if you don't.

Now on to our travels and things we've seen along the road. We thought we had found the PPK when we saw this sign...

Hwy I-44, Bois D'Arc, Missouri. There was no Isa, no Terry, no PPK crew, not even one single vegan cupcake taking over Bois D'Arc. What's up with that?

Here is some adorable birdie cuteness from our stay in Madison. These little Waxwing Birds were eating berries from a tree right outside our window. They were swallowing them whole and just shoving them down like they were on a berry-eating contest. The thing is that it started to snow and the berries froze, so some of them got stuck to their little tongues! They kept shaking their little heads trying to get them off! Poor things! The berries ended up thawing out in their beaks after a few seconds and they were able to eat them, so don't worry - nobody choked to death.

Poor Mr. Robin was trying to eat berries too, but he wasn't very good at it. He was probably able to eat 1 out of 10 out of all the berries that he picked. They kept falling right out of his little beak! He looks so frosty there. Doesn't it make you want to grab him and warm him up in your hands?

Before we say our goodbyes there's something I need to ask you all vegan cookbook connoisseurs. What non-obvious cookbooks can you recommend? I'm collecting cookbooks and after I have all the most popular ones (Veganomicon, Eat Drink & Be Vegan, Vegan With a Vengeance, etc) I will move on to the lesser-known ones. Please enlighten this humble disciple with your invaluable wisdom.

Missed ya River. Your posts are the kind I live for....I savor them, just like I used to "I Am Not A Rabbit!". Hope the travels are well. If the food's any indication, it seems you're doing great! So, which cookbook do I use a lot? Appropriately, "Idiot's Guide to Vegan Cooking." Probably pretty mainstream, but has great basics that I love :)

I couldn't stop laughing after I read your story. (Don't worry, stuff like that happens to me a lot too)Your brownies look great, I am impressed that you made those on a stovetop. Can't wait for the recipe!

I am always amazed by the fantastic eats you can create in a hotel room! Those brownies--whoa. And I'm going to try out those rice patties! I wouldn't think you're clumsy--it IS really dark in those hotel rooms.

And even though those birdies looked a bit distressed, I had to laugh at the Heimlich maneuver!

Hi River! By the way, I deleted my comment because I looked back at the post and realized you said you'd post it soon, so I felt like an idiot! haha

Thanks for all your awesome blog comments, you win the pride & vegudice award for most comments in a day i'd say..i should call it the lady catherine de blog award or something :)

i'm glad you're excited about the coconut milk! i can't wait until i get home for summer break and can buy some from whole foods!

as for non-obvious cookbooks, peanut butter planet! ( i blogged about it like a month ago) it's by the same person who wrote vegan planet..also, i haven't gotten a chance to really use this book, but just from flipping through it, vegan world fusion cuisine is awesome! and aesthetically it's a beautiful cookbook w great pictures and inspirational quotes--it's kind of like, "around the world" vegan style. it has lots of raw/living recipes, including a lavender infused carrot soup i can't wait to try! and it's all super healthy. also, i know this isn't obscure, but do you have JOVB? bc that's a MUST!! oh, and if you could maybe hold out a little, isa's Vegan Brunch cookbook comes out May 25 i wanna say, which i'm convinced will be the best cookbook EVER from looking at preview photos on her blog. also, colleen (author of JOVB) has a reg cookbook coming out called the vegan table!

I just love your posts, River - just want to have you over for tea and giggles or something!I drove across the US (Western Arizona to Northern MI/Canada) a few times, and did lots of hotel stops - If I didn't have a big nightlight with me I would have broken my nose!The rice patties look super cool and I love that they aren't full of everything (whole foods!), I agree, Diann is the bomb, and I love all those birdie pictures!For cookbooks, it's very "granola" but I love the New Farm Cookbook - some of the stuff seems outdated (it's over 30 years old) but I love that it doesn't call for anything that wasn't easily accessible 30 years ago - very whole-foods based. I use it all the time. Cooking the whole foods way by Christine Pirello is also very good - she has a macrobiotics background, but the recipes are very general (there's like 1,000) and delicious. Also like Vegan Lunchbox...I guess I'll stop now!

We, at the http://liftyouup.blogspot.com, found that your blog full of excitements and fun. Great story to share about. In return, we hope you pay us a visit so that we can enlighten you with our story.

you cook up the best looking meals in your hotel rooms! Those brownies look fudgilicious. And I always enjoy your wildlife shots. As for cookbooks, you might like Real Food Daily or Vegan Planet. Are you interested in a particular cuisine? Because there's also The Asian Vegan Kitchen and Real Vegetarian Thai if you like that kind of thing. I haven't cooked many dishes from the latter 2 but they come recommended from others who have.

I can't decide which is more amazing--Your ability to bake brownies in a hotel room or your astonishing nature photography!A cookbook I really love is "Eat Your Veggies" by Beverly Lynn Bennett (it's actually an e-cookbook that I bought from her website" vegan chef"). She has some really fantastic recipes!

I am a clumsy hoteler as well...I lived in ones in college in Florida and in my last one, in the middle of the night I went to the bathroom a little tipsy and coming back to my bed tripped over a leg on my desk chair and bit it flat out! Turns out I broke my fall with my wrist and broke it...

You always have the most interesting travel stories! And your road food is always amazing. (Thanks for the love, BTW!)

As for cookbooks, of which I have far too many, I hope you have all of Dreena's and Isa's books. And the Nava's Vegan Soups and Stews is great. I also recommend V Cuisine and The Complete Vegan Kitchen. Two I use to *wing it* are Simply Vegan and 150 Vegan Favorites. Two I have never used are Native Foods (too much faux meat and tofu) and Everyday Vegan (not Dreena's).

OMG those rice patties look excellent! I can't believe you can manage to cook in a hotel room- laziness aside, i think i'd find it tough to cart around the groceries. But it all looks fab, and I agree- can;t wait for the brownie recipe!

I can't believe the food you can make in hotel rooms! That must make being on the road so much easier...speaking of the road, I love the PPK exit sign - too bad Isa and Terry weren't waiting off the interstate.

Definitely trying those brown rice patties - they look so much more colorful and tasty than many veggie burger/patties - they deserve to be so self-confident.

The closeup bird pictures are beautiful too! I've been watching the early arrival of robins here, and I'm sure they wish they'd waited down south another week or so. The bird trying to put away those giant berries is too much. Great post, and I'm looking forward to more road food!

Saucepan peanut swirl brownies?!?! Ahhh! I cannot wait for the recipe! You are so creative and resourceful! Oh, and I totally am a germophobe too and freak out when I have to be barefoot in certain locations...Bedroom slippers are my BFF.

Your brown rice patties recipe formula is going to be super useful in the future, so thank you thank you thank you! I have it bookmarked now!

I don't have any obscure cookbook recommendations. ED&BV, VwaV, and Veganomicon are the holy trinity as far as I'm concerned and no other cookbook is necessary. I do enjoy Ani's Raw Food Kitchen to switch things up every once in a while, though.

you just made my monday with your post, River! yay! glad to *see* ya again! superw00t!

your hotel room scenario sounds like something i could totally see myself being in. dan is always telling me i'm not much of a "smooth operator". ahahahahahaaa!

i think your saucepan peanut swirl brownies look ever-so tasty! i cannot wait for your recipe, River! dan and i still can't stop making your stove top muffinish goodies these days. mmmmmmmm! and i love the idea for the rice patties! totally gonna have to give them a whirl! thanks for the recipe! they look deeeeelicious! gonna have to try out Diann's white bean sauce when we get some more bulk white beans soon! i've seen it around and it sounds too good to be true!

as for cookbooks - i love Yellow Rose Recipes & Vegan Planet A LOT! they're two of our favorites, fo 'sho! i also here that Vegan Soul Kitchen (it came out just a little while ago) is pretty rock'n, too - although i haven't tried it. we also have the Joy Of Vegan Baking, but have only tried a few recipes from it - it's pretty awesome as well!

i'm so amazed that you are able to make such awesome yummies in a hotel room! very impressive :)

love the ppk sign and the birdie pics! as for cookbooks... i really like accidental vegan. simple recipes that are mostly very tasty and easily tweaked. i'm also ordering the vegan soups and stews for all seasons book because i've heard nothing but great reviews of that so far. i'll let you know how it is once i get it, if you like!

You sure asked the right question! I have TONS of vegan cookbooks as you can tell from the list on my blog (and it's not even updated!). For a book full of elegant recipes, ExtraVeganZa is great and also The Candle Cafe Cookbook. My Sweet Vegan, the 3 Sarah Kramer books, Dreena Burton's earlier 2 books, The Real Food Daily Cookbook, Vegan Planet, Cooking with PETA, The Great American Detox Diet (a fantastic read plus recipes), Vegan Lunch Box, Vegann Soups and Hearty Stews for All Seasons, Madhur Jaffrey's World Vegetarian, Yellow Rose Recipes...

the universal torture of a non familiar clock radio blasting when you don't want it to. of course, your rendition was more exciting than most.

mmmm... pan brownies. only you could pull them off.

Those birdie pics are very nice. It's very freaky that he would stuff himself w/ such a huge berry.

I think the PP K sign was a trap :)

I wish I could recommend some cookbooks. I tend to try one recipe from a book, get hooked on it, then don't venture too much further. I could recommend them, but you shoudl probably take them out of the library first. For example, I have tried the ravioli and groundnut stew from the voluptuous vegan and they are really good. but haven't tried any other recipes from it. it's because I keep trying all these blogger recipes first :)

That is just WRONG! No one should be able to create such decadent peanut swirl brownies IN A HOTEL ROOM!! You rock! I always lose weight on trips where we stay in hotels because of the lack of food...but now you're gonna make me try these!

Welcome to Wing It Vegan! I am River and this blog is where I keep track of my favorite recipes. Hopefully you will find some new favorites here as well! Please, don't run away scared if you're not vegan! I promise I won't throw rotten beets or snarky judgments at you. MORE